The proposed Pebble Mine, near the headwaters of Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska, could yield a staggering 107 million ounces of gold, 80 billion pounds of copper and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum, which is used to make steel alloys. Pebble Partnership, which wants to do the digging, is so confident of the bounty beneath the ground it has spent five years and $107 million monitoring the soil, water and air in order to assure the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) it can mine without causing ecological damage.
"The quantity, grade and continuity of mineralization at Pebble ... demonstrate the project's potential to be one of the great metal producers of the 21st century," said Rod Thiessen, president and CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals, which is working on the project with London-based Anglo American.
"The quantity, grade and continuity of mineralization at Pebble ... demonstrate the project's potential to be one of the great metal producers of the 21st century."
- Rod Thiessen, president/CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals
But the lucrative mine is swimming upstream against a powerful environmental lobby that believes it would endanger the sockeye salmon habitat, wipe out entire streams, pollute other waterways and carve a maze of roads stretching hundreds of square miles. A draft watershed assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released in May found that a possible failure of a dam holding waste from the project could spill into the fish habitat and poison salmon for decades to come.
A public comment period on that assessment ended Monday and a peer review panel will examine the scientific and technical merit of the EPA assessment in Anchorage on Aug. 7-9. But some conservationists and commercial fishers told FoxNews.com they believe the EPA’s assessment is a significant blow to the proposed mine.
“If you read the watershed assessment, the conclusion that the EPA came to is that even without a catastrophic dam failure, there would be cumulative effects over time that would have an adverse effect on fish and other animals in the region,” said Lindsey Bloom, an organizer with Trout Unlimited and operator of a commercial fishing boat. “For us, if you look at the Exxon Valdez oil spill or the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf, consumers just balk at the idea of potential pollution in their seafood.”
Bristol Bay — home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world — contains all five species of North American Pacific salmon and provides at least 14,000 full- and part-time jobs annually, valued at roughly $480 million, according to the EPA. It also accounts for 46 percent of wild sockeye salmon worldwide and provides habitat to more than 190 bird species as well.
Bloom said Alaskans have long been “overwhelmingly” against the project over fears that a large-scale mine will fundamentally and irrevocably alter the region’s pristine landscape. Some natives also see the mine as one mega-industry stomping on local fisheries.
“I’m in favor of protecting existing jobs,” she said. “I see the mine as a potential job killer. It’s really big business versus big business. The fishing industry is the No. 1 job supplier in the state of Alaska. To me, that’s one business being threatened by another, and it’s not a 'save the baby whales' situation.”
Pebble Partnership CEO John Shivley calls the EPA document “rushed” and inadequate. Spokesman Mike Heatwole said the group is preparing to answer the “clearly flawed” report and questioned why the federal agency ignored calls for an extension of the public comment period. Pebble hasn't even formally applied for a permit, Heatwole said, and doesn't understand why the EPA jumped to block a mine he says will benefit the ailing state economy.
“Why the rush by the EPA?” Heatwole told FoxNews.com. “Why not listen to the state of Alaska?”